Your local Labour MP is calling for members of the local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group to either resign from their directorships of private healthcare companies or to guarantee that these companies will never be given multi-million NHS contracts in Southampton.

This follows reports that four GPs on the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) are directors of private companies which could be up for profitable NHS contracts.

John Denham MP believes that the members of the CCG – which is the new organisation made up of powerful GPs now responsible for awarding NHS contracts out to external bodies – should avoid any perception that they could gain personally from their new positions.

“I want to echo the concerns of the British Medical Association, the Royal College of GPs and the thousands of Southampton’s residents who will be hugely concerned about this potential conflict of interest.

“The priority for those local GPs with the power to award huge contracts out to private companies is to work for the public interest and not for their own. No one asked for this new system in the first place.

“That’s why the only decent thing to do now for those GPs who have any potential conflict of interest is either resign from their directorships or make a cast-iron guarantee that the companies they work for will not be given any NHS contracts in Southampton. This will help to avoid any perception that they could gain personally from their new positions.

“If they can’t commit to either, they shouldn’t be responsible for the healthcare of Southampton’s residents”.